Scoring 71 points in two games, Maka was so suffocated last season. Do the Warriors regret this performance?

The 2025 Men's Basketball Team is in full swing, and one team has performed extremely well. They are the Finnish men's basketball team led by Lauri Markkanen. In the 2023 Men's Basketball World Cup, Finland lost to the Japanese team, resulting in them missing the top 16. In this European Cup, Finland men's basketball team defeated the decline. They averaged 16.5 points per game in the first two games of the group stage, winning two consecutive victories, and in the same level as the champion German team and Lithuanian team.

The Finnish men's basketball team can sweep away the previous haze and show the strength of the top team, which is closely related to Markkanin's performance. In the two group matches, Maka scored a total of 71 points. What does this mean? In the match between the Czech men's basketball team and the Portuguese men's basketball team, the final score between the two sides was 50-62. Markanen's output was almost up to another team. He also ranked first in the scoring list of this event with averaging 35.5 points. Especially in the match against the British men's basketball team, Markkanen swept 43 points like a wind and cloud in just 23 minutes of playing time, making 13 of 22 sports games (59.1% shooting), including 7 of 13 three-pointers (53.8% shooting), and 10 of them 11 free throws from the free throw line, showing his scoring machine side to the fullest.

Before the start of the European Cup, Markkanen had already started a big kill in the warm-up match. At that time, many fans questioned that he could only score points. When the main game and others were on the defensive intensity, he would be weak and unsustainable. Facts have proved that Markanen, who is 2.13 meters tall, 2.23 meters tall, has a strong physical fitness, and has a beautiful shooting skills, has long been out of the scope of understanding of ordinary forward players. When he chooses to take action, his opponent can only pray that he feels badly. In other words, he is the only one who can defend him.

Unfortunately, at the age of 28, for a professional player, he is in his prime. Although Markanen received a maximum salary contract as he wished for in the Utah Jazz, he had to accept the reality of wasting time in Salt Lake City. In the eyes of Jazz general manager Danny Angie, although Markanen is very good, he is not a star at the core level of the team building. Therefore, the Jazz's recent idea is to win high picks by playing badly, so as to hoard talents.

For Marca, this is very embarrassing. The team's championship window period is perfectly staggered with his peak period, and even his skills have affected the Jazz's plan. At the end of last season, the Jazz, who could not bear it, directly asked Markkanin to hang out of the battle card with the reason of injury in case he got excited and led the team to win too many unnecessary wins. Now it seems that Markanin looks like he is injured at all? Last season, Marca was really a suffocated. She wanted to win but couldn’t. Who can bear it? No wonder Markanen, who returned to the national team, was like trapping a dragon into the sea and a tiger returning to the mountain, and scored an output that surpassed top stars such as Yoshiki, Antetokounmpo, and Doncic.

In this situation, Danny Angie is afraid that she will laugh. As the European Cup schedule deepens, Markkanen's value will inevitably rise. In the current environment where all the powerful men are engaged in arms races, the teams who are not strong in the front line but want to compete in the O'Brien Cup are likely to ask for the Jazz with generous chips.

And for the Golden State Warriors, it is a completely different story. Last summer, the Warriors were very close to getting Markkanen, but the management of the two sides had huge differences on the issue of Kumingga. As the Warriors boss Lacob's favorite, Xiao Ku's favorite was the Warriors' non-sale product at that time, so the deal was left in vain. As time goes by, Markkanen performs better and better, while Kumingga makes a frantically stumbling over the Warriors' renewal, causing the Warriors' management to get in a dilemma. The Warriors have become the only team in the offseason to gain nothing in the free agent market. At this point, the Golden State Warriors may even regret their intestines. If they were more decisive at that time, how could they end up in such a mess now? If you want to play Markkanin now, it will not be the price last summer.